Egypt's former ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was given 15 days of detention on Tuesday over new charges related to a massive sit-in held by his supporters after his ouster in 2013, just hours after being slapped with 20 years in prison in another case.Morsi has already been behind bars for over a year and a half.
Along with other defendants, Morsi is charged with inciting his supporters to commit murder, demonstrate and disturb the public peace through the sit-in that was staged in Rabaa El-Adawiya, in Cairo's Nasr City district.
Morsi, who won the 2012 presidential elections after the toppling of his longstanding predecessor Hosni Mubarak the year before, delivered a speech a day before he was ousted in early July 2013, warning that his deposal would cause violence.
Others, already detained figures from the banned Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, have also been listed as defendants by the prosecution, including Essam El-Erian and Essam El-Hadad.
Earlier on Tuesday, Morsi was sentenced to 20 years in prison for inciting violence that led to the death of ten people during clashes outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.
Beyond the new charges related to Rabaa El-Adawiya, Morsi is also standing trial in four other cases over charges of “collaborating with foreign organisations to commit acts of terrorism in Egypt,” leaking documents to Qatar, breaking out of prison in 2011, and insulting the judiciary during one of his trials, according to his defence team.
The Rabaa El-Adawiya sit-in, along with another one in Nahda Square, also in Cairo, was staged late in June 2013 to counterbalance nationwide protests against Morsi's rule.
Both sit-ins continued for over a month after he was ousted on 3 July 2013, primarily calling for his reinstatement.
Clashes with police and civilians repeatedly erupted during the sit-ins, as Morsi loyalists marched in protest against his ouster and what they described as a "military coup".
Both sit-ins were forcibly dispersed in mid-August, leaving hundreds dead, mostly from the Islamist camp.
